How Campus Ministry and Social Justice Can Work Together

| 2017-09-06 00:00:00 -0400

Bridging the gap between the passion of college students and the needs of the world.

I was a pretty self-absorbed college student. I cared a lot about what parties I attended and my grades. I attended a church, but for the most part, I didn’t want Jesus to interfere with my life. I was MUCH more interested in brand-name clothes and my relationship status.

We want to speak into injustice and do something about the conflict in our world.

Since starting in campus ministry after I graduated in 2013, the college students have gotten way cooler. This week alone I talked to a student who received a $4,000 grant to do a coast-to-coast photography project on sustainability in the national parks. I talked to another student who is working with Congolese refugees in Columbus. Like what?! I was nowhere near that compassionate when I was 18 (just seven years ago).

I recently transitioned to working for both a campu- focused church (H2O) and an anti-human-trafficking nonprofit. In the process, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how these worlds have collided.

As ministers of the gospel, I don’t think we have to argue that Jesus cared about social justice. He walked with the poor, the widows, and the orphans. He hung out with a ragtag team and wasn’t exactly a picture of lavish wealth. We want our churches to reflect this reality. We want to be the safest place for the poor and the needy. We want to speak into injustice and do something about the conflict in our world.

Enter college students (specifically ones that are nothing like 18-year-old Whitney). College students are some of the most envisioned, driven, and passionate people on this planet.

What if those passions collided with social justice? And what if, as their campus church, we gave them an outlet for said passion? What if we partnered with anti-human-trafficking nonprofits and homeless shelters? What if we let them lead us in how we care for our cities?

I think something really beautiful could happen.

I work for She Has A Name (SHAN), an organization with education as a core value. We offer free quarterly trainings for the public. At these three-week trainings, we see hundreds of people from all walks of life; lawyers, stay-at-home moms, and college students come together to learn about human trafficking.

Our campus church has sent several of our students to SHAN’s quarterly training. It’s been a true joy for me to see students in our church step into the hard and messy space that is human trafficking. There were five H2O students in attendance at She Has A Name’s most recent round of anti-human-trafficking training. These students then go and have the ability to pour into our church what they learned. Because our church partners with other nonprofits, we’re able to provide students opportunities to find their God-given passions and then do something about it.

I truly believe in college students, and one of my greatest privileges is seeing them care about things that matter. The students I’m surrounded with choose refugees over parties and poverty over Instagram. It’s a pretty sweet gift for me to sit in the in-between and help bridge the gap between passionate students and social justice.